City asking voters to extend tax for another 5 years

Dan Werner, an energy auditor from Home Energy Savers, shows a Boulder homeowner that he has air leaks around a light fixture. Such energy efficiency audits are one of the ways the city is spending the money raised through its Climate Action Plan tax, which is up for renewal this fall. (Cliff Grassmick / Daily Camera)

* "Services delivery" includes rebates, incentives and energy advisor consulting services, as well as consulting services to the city for program development.

Since Boulder voters approved the Climate Action Plan tax in 2006, the city has spent $5.3 million in its efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

But less than half of the money generated by the utility tax -- just 41 percent -- has gone to what the city categorizes as "services delivery" -- rebates and incentives to homeowners for energy-efficiency upgrades, energy audits for residents and business owners, and consulting help to develop the city's programs.

The city spent 32 percent of the tax money on personnel, with another 12 percent going to education and marketing, 5 percent to overhead and 3 percent to transpiration. The final 7 percent is an unspent balance.

Boulder is asking voters to approve an extension of the tax on their utility bills for another five years. If it's not renewed, the tax will expire in March.

City officials said they know some taxpayers will be disappointed that more of the money collected through the CAP tax hasn't gone directly to rebates and incentives. But, they said, it took time to develop the program, and money spent on personnel, education and marketing has helped give thousands of residents and business owners the tools they need to make important energy efficiency upgrades -- often using private money.

"There has always been a philosophy of leveraging other funds and using private contractors to transform the market for energy efficiency," said Kara Mertz, manager of Boulder's Local Environmental Action Division.

A report from the Rocky Mountain Institute commissioned by the city earlier this year concluded that Boulder had made "impressive" improvements in energy savings -- though not enough to reach its Kyoto Protocol goals of getting greenhouse gas emissions 7 percent below 1990 levels -- and had done so in a way that was reasonably cost effective.

The report also concluded that the cost-effectiveness of the programs would increase over time as the start-up costs are now behind the city. The most cost-effective emissions reductions have come from residential and commercial lighting programs, commercial energy audits, and solar rebates and grants, the report said.

Another report from the Brendle Group said Boulder should put more focus on commercial energy efficiency, an approach the City Council has said it intends to pursue if the CAP tax -- also known as the carbon tax -- is renewed by voters.

Breaking it down

The tax on utility bills generates about $1.8 million every year for the city, though in 2007 and 2008, the city applied a lower tax rate. That money funds a variety of energy efficiency programs, including residential and commercial EnergySmart, SmartRegs for residential landlords and Ten for Change, a program that encourages business owners to reduce their energy use by 10 percent.

Dan Werner, an energy auditor from Home Energy Savers, explains to a Boulder homeowner how his home will be tested for air leaks and efficiency.
(
CLIFF GRASSMICK
)

Though spending on personnel has increased over the time of the tax -- from $209,224 in 2007 to $381,382 in 2011 -- it now makes up a smaller percentage of the total spending.

At the same time, money spent on "services delivery" has varied considerably from year to year, in part because that category includes consulting contracts that provide services both to consumers and to city staff. When the city was revamping its programs and developing the EnergySmart program -- which provides energy advisers and rebates to consumers -- in 2009 and 2010, spending on services, including consultants, increased.

In 2011, just 27 percent of CAP tax money went to services delivery and 25 percent went to education and marketing.

Boulder spokeswoman Sarah Huntley said money spent on marketing often has a good return on investment as people who learn about energy efficiency tap into private-sector rebates or spend their own money on improvements.

"So much of our Climate Action Plan is dependent on community involvement," Mertz said. "The outreach we do can get someone involved, and then they do an improvement that gets a rebate from Xcel."

City officials estimate that between $4 and $5 of private money is spent for every $1 of CAP tax money.

Before 2011, Huntley said, the city did not track spending on rebates and incentives in a way that can be isolated from other services.

The city spent $170,203 in residential rebates and SmartRegs incentives in 2011 and $312,136 so far in 2012. The city has another $137,000 for residential rebates and program subsidies for this year, which will be used in the first quarter of 2013 if it lasts.

No CAP tax money went to commercial EnergySmart programs in 2011, though $192,600 in state and federal grant funds administered by the city were given to commercial EnergySmart rebates.

In 2012, the city has given $300,000 in commercial rebates. Another $75,000 has been set aside for large property owners between now and the end of the year.

Huntley said city officials understand the public wants an accounting of how the money was spent and improving record keeping and making sure records are kept in a way that makes year-to-year comparisons meaningful is one of the city's commitments as it moves forward -- regardless of whether the renewal passes.

'Corporate welfare'

Boulder resident Dennis Scheminske, a retired public relations consultant, voted for the CAP tax in 2006, and he said he hasn't decided how he'll vote this time.

Scheminske said that when he donates to charities, he takes a close look at how much they spend on administrative costs and overhead. He said the city's CAP tax spending doesn't seem to fit the same standards he would use when selecting a charity.

He said more of the money should go to rebates and incentives.

"The focus should be on the end-user," he said.

Jon Caldara, president of the free-market think-tank Independence Institute and a longtime Boulder resident, dismissed the CAP tax as worth less than "the fairy, pixie dust, elf tax."

If energy-efficiency saves people money or if people value it, there should be a market for those services without government intervention, he said.

On the ballot

Boulder voters are being asked to extend the city's Climate Action Plan tax for another five years. Here's the actual ballot language:

"Without raising additional taxes, shall the existing Climate Action Plan excise tax be extended for five years for the purpose of continuing to provide incentives, services, and other assistance to Boulder residents and businesses to improve energy efficiency, expand the use of renewable energy, and take other necessary steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, at the current rate of $0.0049 per kilowatt hour (kwh) for residential customers, $0.0009 per kwh for commercial customers, and $0.0003 per kwh for industrial customers on electricity consumed, from its current expiration of March 31, 2013, through March 31, 2018 as a voter-approved revenue change?"

"This is corporate welfare with a happier face," he said.

Mertz said the city is constantly assessing its impact on the market. During a pilot program with the commercial sector, the CAP tax is paying for energy coaches but also measuring the benefit to the businesses of that service.

Mertz said the city anticipates there will come a time when businesses will see enough benefit to energy coaches that the city won't have to subsidize them anymore. She compared the transition to curbside recycling, which the city provided at one point but is now handled through commercial waste hauling contracts.

'Such a cinch'

Todd Krawczyk, who recently had an energy audit of a home he and his wife bought on Locust Place in north Boulder, said the program made it easier and more affordable to find out how they could make the house more energy efficient as they prepare to undertake a significant remodel.

He said he was amazed at all the small fixes identified by the energy audit, and, because of rebates, it only cost him $120.

Krawczyk said he would gladly pay the carbon tax to have the program available for more residents in the future.

Susan Osborne, a former Boulder mayor who is on the committee to pass the CAP tax renewal, said the city could have done a better job tracking the money, but she has no doubt that it's a valuable program.

Osborne said it took some time for the city to develop the most appropriate programs, but now that EnergySmart is well established, it's showing good results.

"It feels like we've hit the nail on the head in terms of developing an easy-to-use program to help people make their homes more energy efficient," she said. "It would be a shame if we didn't have the money to continue the EnergySmart program and keep making our community more energy efficient."

Osborne has taken advantage of the program herself, with an energy audit of her home that led her to take on a number of upgrades, from insulation to an airtight doggie door. She's reduced her electricity usage by more than 200 kilowatts a month, she said, and plans to install solar panels sometime soon.

The energy adviser helped her identify qualified contractors and available rebates for every project.

"I feel like it's really just the best program in the country for helping people make energy efficiency improvements," Osborne said. "It's just such a cinch."

Osborne said that she would have been much less likely to vote for SmartRegs, the program that requires residential landlords to meet certain energy efficiency standards, if assistance weren't available from the city.

However, landlords still will have to meet higher standards by 2018 even if the tax isn't renewed.

Huntley said Boulder's energy programs aim to find the "sweet spot" between people's desire to be environmentally conscious and their ability to actually make changes.

"This program says you can make an environmental difference, and we're going to make it easy," Huntley said.

Lightning has 5A state title aspirations once againIt was the only home plate the Legacy varsity softball field had ever known, and there it was last Saturday, in its tattered state, dug out of the playing surface and relegated to a lonely, unused existence. Full Story

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story